A Ranger's Charger - 1969 Dodge Charger R/T

Preserving an original '69 Charger R/T to honor its first owner's legacy

Feature Article from Hemmings Muscle Machines

Like a lot of soldiers returning from Vietnam in 1969, Sergeant Anthony Zupec, a Ranger from the 82nd Airborne, wanted a new car. Fresh from his second tour of duty in Southeast Asia, he surely deserved it.
Flush with a bit of hard-earned cash after living in a place where he really had nowhere to spend it, Tony did what a lot of young men would do in his position: He went out and bought a new Corvette. That Corvette soon met its demise, however, when Tony loaned it to a friend who destroyed the car while intoxicated.
Fortunately, the insurance payout allowed him to get back in the game. Armed with that settlement, he stepped off base and headed to Royal Dodge in nearby Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he bought a new 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with a 440 Magnum and A833 four-speed transmission with Hurst shifter. Black on red with no vinyl roof, and accented by red bumble-bee stripes across the rear of the quarter panel, Tony's Charger surely made a statement, whether in North Carolina or back in his hometown of Ely, Minnesota, where he soon returned after buying the R/T.
Tragically, in January 1970, Tony lost his life in a mining accident in Minnesota at just 23 years old. His mother kept the car in her name until her younger son, Michael, graduated from high school, when he inherited the car with the promise to his mother that he would never sell it while she was alive. Michael Zupec kept his word, maintaining ownership through his own years of military service and later during a career as a smoke jumper.
But he did eventually part with the car after his mother passed away a few years ago, selling it to current owner Dan Meadows of Paradise Valley, Arizona, in 2006.
Although Dan had been a fan of the Charger when the cars were new, he was only reminded of its appeal when his son dragged him to see The Fast and the Furious, the 2001 film, in which the protagonist, played by Vin Diesel, wrecks his blown 1970 Charger in spectacular fashion in the climactic scene. It's hardly Bullitt, but each generation has its own four-wheeled action stars. At least Diesel's character got a big-block Charger with a blower and not a Volkswagen Jetta.
After that, Dan put the word out about wanting a 1969 Charger R/T with no vinyl roof. Al Meehan, his business partner's brother and a Mopar aficionado from Minneapolis, heard about the possibility of the Zupec car being available in Ely and offered to check it out for him. The car turned out to be quite clean, complete and almost entirely original, save for a respray of the original black in the mid-1990s and some readily fixable issues with the interior. Equipped with his trailer, Al bought the car that day on behalf of Dan and hauled it down to Mike Meadows, Dan's brother and a five-time Goodguys award winner, in Watertown, South Dakota.
Mike Meadows began the work to get the car back in roadworthy shape and ready for showing. Despite spending the better part of four decades in the northern part of the country, the R/T had seen very little winter weather, and the body remained in great shape. With such a car largely undrivable during the harsh Minnesota winters--which can last six months--and Michael Zupec spending the majority of his summers fighting forest fires, the Charger had not been driven much at all. In fact, Michael had kept the car in his mother's barn all of those years.
But the interior, while complete, was another matter. Mike Meadows installed the proper red vinyl coverings over new seat foam. He also replaced a sagging headliner; stubborn carpet stains convinced the brothers to simply replace that area of the interior. The rest of the interior, including the console, dash and door panels, remained original, but required a good cleaning. Even the glass appears original, as attested by a 1969 North Carolina state inspection sticker still affixed to the windshield.
Mechanically, the freshening included replacing the brake shoes, turning the drums and replacing some of the brake lines. The radiator was pulled and flushed, and the carburetor was rebuilt, although Dan Meadows notes, "I don't think we really had to do it, but we did it anyway." The view under the hood is hardly perfect, with some paint flaking from the rocker covers and intake manifold, but it's far from dirty. The 440 Magnum presents what some might call a well-preserved patina, while others will simply settle for the term "original." No internal engine work was required, so with everything in working order, the car was delivered to Dan Meadows in Arizona.
As purchased by Tony Zupec--and as it remains today--this Charger was equipped with the required the A33 Track Pak Hi-Performance Group, which consisted of a 3.54 Dana 60 Sure-Grip differential, the Hurst shifter, a seven-blade fan and a 26-inch, high-performance radiator with fan shroud. An optional A34 Super Track Pak included largely the same equipment, but with a shorter 4.10 rear and front disc brakes. All 426 Hemi and 440/four-speed Chargers required one of these two packages.
Other options and choices on this R/T included the X9 black exterior, C6R red vinyl bucket-seat interior and V8R red bumblebee stripe. While the 1968 model year stripes consisted of a pair of vertical stripes, for 1969 the stripes included a wider center stripe with a thin stripe on either side with "R/T" lettering in the middle.
Although no other performance options were chosen, Tony Zupec's car was delivered with the A01 Light Package, which added an array of lamps for the ashtray, glovebox, trunk and ignition key, as well as a map light, a switch for the rear dome lamp, and a warning buzzer for when the headlamps were left on. A center console and a Music Master AM radio completed the interior. Despite the heft of the car, power steering and power brake options were not installed on this Charger.
The only significant change Dan has made to his car was the fitment of 15-inch Magnum wheels, with wide tires at the rear, simply because he finds the look more pleasing than the standard 14-inchers from 1969.
Putting just 400 to 600 miles on the car each year, mostly going to and from local shows, Dan admits to leaning into the car once in a while, but not too hard, saying, "I've kind of taken the position that it's original--or very close to original--and I want to keep it that way, so I'm reluctant to break it." With just 3,605 440/four-speed Charger R/Ts made in 1969--out of 18,344 440 R/Ts and just about 89,200 total Chargers that year--we can only imagine how few are left, particularly survivors like this car, so it's hard to blame him for not driving it too hard.
"It's a little bit of a handful to drive in tight quarters," Dan reports, "because it has no power steering. The fact that it doesn't have power brakes doesn't seem to matter. Those big brakes on there seem to stop the car fine. Without having power steering when you get into tight areas, like at car shows and things like that, it's a little bit of a pain, especially with the four-speed. But that's absolutely the only complaint I would have about the car, because once you're moving 20 MPH or faster, the power steering doesn't matter."
Behind the wheel, the red interior really brightens things up inside. It feels bigger, yet more manageable at the same time, and allows you to dwell on some of the interior's design features, but not options: This R/T is about as bare-naked as it gets inside, barring a radio or heater-delete plate. There is no tach, sadly, for this hard-charging four-speed. The steering wheel is in your chest and the shift knob clings to your right leg like an overly-amorous beagle. The headrests, even up, smack you in the back of your neck rather than the back of your head.
The steering wheel seems so thin, yet so imposing at the same time. You can feel the chuggy idle through your seat and not the floor somehow. The legendary power and torque of the four-barrel 440 are on tap at all revs. Don't go by the missing paint on the intake and valve covers; this thing runs fine. The shifter is nicely bushed--one of the few we've driven with this crooked-stick-type shifter where we can actually tell what gear it's in and not get hung up in the 2-3 gate. Even with the 3.54 rear, 50 MPH in fourth sounds as loud as 80 MPH in other cars. Surely, the 4.10-equipped cars were even worse.
The long, low, nose-down stance meant that we had to keep our brights on during our nighttime drive in order to see anything; it was generally not very helpful in cornering, either, but the factory anti-roll bar kept things manageable. The low-effort manual steering--once beyond parking-lot speeds--was a boon to cornering as well, although the ratio was still too slow for our tastes. Hand-over-hand combat was the order of the day when getting things into position during cornering. Around town, the R/T's suspension is something of a rough customer, feeling entirely too stiff for its (or your) own good, though it softens up nicely at speed.
Dan insists he wants to keep the car in largely the same condition, for two reasons: its originality and its history. "When I first got the car," he explains, "I was thinking about restoring it, and then when I started researching it and looking at some of the paperwork that was in the car and talking to Michael Zupec about the history of the car, that's when I decided I was just going to try to keep it as original as I could. I thought it was really important.
"This car would have been used up like every other Charger," he continues, "or most of the other Chargers, if it wouldn't have been for [Tony Zupec's] death, because then it became a special item to the family."
Tony Zupec had the car for less than a year, but managed to put more than 15,000 miles on the car in that time. Today, it still logs just 50,000 miles on the odometer, thanks to that promise Michael Zupec kept to his mother.
Cars may ultimately be a collection of metal, plastic, rubber and other materials shaped into tools to move us around. But if we really believed that, I wouldn't be writing this and you wouldn't be reading it. Dan Meadows has found something that is special and that speaks to him, and at the same time, offers a bit of a rolling memorial with respect to someone who served his country, but only had a brief time to enjoy his reward for that service. Muscle car originality comes in many forms, but as a legacy to that selfless service, we consider this Charger a winner any way you look at it.
Owner's View
I'm one of those guys who likes everything. It's a sickness, I guess. I just like lots of different cars. I'm not really hooked on Mopar, Chevy or Ford, or anything else, but I've always liked the look of that Charger, just the profile of it. Of all the Mopar cars, I like the 'Cudas and I like the Challengers, but there is something really unique about the Charger.
What's so cool about this car is that the old guys--like me--like it because they remember the car when it came out. The muscle car guys like it because it's one of the true muscle vehicles, in my opinion. And all the young guys like it. I'll get 18-, 19- and 20-year-old guys coming up to me and saying, "This is my favorite car."-- Dan MeadowsCLUB SCENEThe Dodge Charger Registry
P.O. Box 79
Meherrin, Virginia 23954
434-223-1305www.dodgechargerregistry.com
Dues: $30/year • Membership: 500
PROS
+ Unique Charger style
+ 440/four-speed combo
+ Very original
CONS
- No power steering
- No power brakes
- Careful driving to keep things original
1969 Dodge Charger R/T375 HORSEPOWER @ 4,600 RPM
480-lbs.ft. torque @ 3,200 RPM
1/4-mile: 14.4 seconds @ 98 MPHSPECIFICATIONSPrice
Base price -- $3,592
Price as profiled -- $3,839.65
Options on car profiled -- A01 Light Package, $25.95; A33 Track-Pak Hi-Performance Group, $142.95; R11 Music Master radio, $61.55; V8R Stripe, no charge
Engine
Type -- Chrysler RB-series OHV V-8, cast-iron block and cylinder heads
Displacement -- 440 cubic inches
Bore x Stroke -- 4.32 x 3.75 inches
Compression ratio -- 10.1:1
Horsepower @ RPM -- 375 @ 4,600
Torque @ RPM -- 480-lbs.ft. @ 3,200
Valvetrain -- Hydraulic valve lifters
Main bearings -- 5
Fuel system -- Single Carter AVS 4617 carburetor
Lubrication system -- Pressure, gear-type pump
Electrical system -- 12-volt
Exhaust system -- Cast-iron exhaust manifolds, dual exhaust
Transmission
Type -- Four-speed manual
Ratios:
1st -- 2.65:1
2nd -- 1.93:1
3rd -- 1.39:1
4th -- 1.00:1
Reverse -- 2.57:1
Differential
Type -- Dana 60 9¾-inch ring gear and housing with Sure-Grip limited-slip differential
Ratio -- 3.54:1
Steering
Type -- Power-assisted recirculating ball
Turns, lock-to-lock -- 5.3
Ratio -- 28.8:1
Turning circle radius -- 41 feet
Brakes
Type -- Hydraulic manual drum/drum
Front -- 11 x 3-inch drum
Rear -- 11 x 2.5-inch drum
Chassis & Body
Construction -- Unit-body
Body style -- Two-door hardtop
Layout -- Front engine, rear-wheel drive
Suspension
Front -- Independent; unequal-length wishbones, torsion bars, tubular shock absorbers
Rear -- Leaf springs (6 leaves left, 5½ right); tubular shock absorbers
Wheels & Tires
Wheels -- Steel Magnum 500, brushed trim ring
Front -- 14 x 6 inches (currently 15 x 7 inches, chromed)
Rear -- 14 x 6 inches (currently 15 x 8 inches, chromed)
Tires -- Goodyear Polyglas (currently Diamond Back Classics DBIII Redline Radials)
Front -- F70-14 (currently 225/60-15 redline radials)
Rear -- F70-14 (currently 275/60-15 redline radials)
Weights & Measures
Wheelbase -- 117 inches
Overall length -- 207.9 inches
Overall width -- 77 inches
Overall height -- 53.7 inches
Front track -- 59.7 inches
Rear track -- 59.2 inches
Curb weight -- 3,646 pounds
Capacities
Crankcase -- 5 quarts
Cooling system -- 18 quarts
Fuel tank -- 19 gallons
Transmission -- 3.75 quarts (pan)
Rear axle -- 3.75 pints
Calculated Data
BHP per cu.in. -- 0.85
Weight per BHP -- 9.72 pounds
Weight per cu.in. -- 8.29 pounds
Production
Dodge produced 18,974 Charger R/Ts for the 1969 model year.
Performance
Acceleration*
0-60 MPH -- 7.2 seconds
1/4-mile ET -- 14.4 seconds @ 98 MPH
*Source: Hot Rod, October 1967, test of a 1968 Charger R/T 440

This article originally appeared in the December, 2011 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines.